Beach-fire ban proposed again for Alki (and beyond)

| West Seattle beaches | West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

Just 3 days ago, we republished the “West Seattle 101” chapter celebrating Alki Beach fires. Now, it seems, they once again are in danger of being extinguished forever: Tonight there’s word that when the city Parks Board meets next Thursday, members will hear about a proposed ban on beach fires at Alki and elsewhere — in the name of climate change. The online agenda says the proposal is to “eliminate beach fires as part of the Climate Action Now program.” The board meets 7 pm Thursday, 100 Dexter Avenue North. (It’s listed as a briefing, not a public hearing.) This is the second time in four years that a beach-fire ban’s been proposed. The city website says the briefing paper on this will be available online tomorrow on the Parks Board page.

add June 5, 2008 (10:25 pm)

Noooo! I’m all for focusing on ways to prudently use resources and manage climate-impacting behaviors – but I have to say one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE things about living in WS is the beach at Alki in the summer and the ability to build a fire, gather friends, and have the kids run around into the sunsetting night.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I can make that meeting – will there be a follow-up or report (not suggesting WSB should be resposible, but where can we find one)?

old timer June 5, 2008 (10:29 pm)

What a load of crap. These miserable slugs don’t even know where the beach is. I’ll bet that DOT trucks spilling sand on the streets make way more pollution that a handful of people enjoying a primal rite (and right) of a good beach fire.

We need some new bureaucrats, or maybe just do away with them entirely.

Cripes, they try every year with any excuse,

Can you tell that I think this idea is CRAP?

WSB June 5, 2008 (10:30 pm)

Well, of course we should be responsible. That’s our job. We’ll be there. Couple other big events that night – Fauntleroy Place groundbreaking, Design Review Board meeting for two West Seattle projects – but we’ll bring it all to you here.

OP June 5, 2008 (11:02 pm)

A briefing? So no public say in the matter, is that right? If so, all we’re missing is the goose-stepping only with green shirts instead of brown…

WSB June 5, 2008 (11:08 pm)

It’s a briefing on a proposal. We will be checking further tomorrow with the Parks Department regarding exact procedure and opportunities for public comment. Meantime, I’ve linked the parks board’s webpage in the post above, and would imagine that e-mail to them would be one way to start getting your view into the mix. Doing some research on the last time this came around – when we were working in citywide news instead of here in WS – apparently a petition drive was launched to stop the proposal; I’m expecting we’ll hear eventually here from someone who was involved with that.

alkiguy June 5, 2008 (11:16 pm)

According to the PDF agenda you can download, there is 15 minutes scheduled for “Oral Requests and Communication from the Audience (for subjects that have not had or are not scheduled for a public hearing)”. So there’s the possibility that someone could show up and address it there as well.
(It also says that “Speakers will be limited to 3 minutes each; a maximum of 15 minutes testimony will be heard during Oral Requests portion of the agenda.” I’m not sure how they pick which members of the public get their say…)

grr June 6, 2008 (12:06 am)

If you dress nice, you get picked.
–
my oral argument would be less than 5 seconds :)

Jiggers June 6, 2008 (1:34 am)

What a total joke!! If you want to star to help climate change, stop Halliburton.

Mags June 6, 2008 (6:08 am)

There is probably more pollution coming from these guys exhaling….

bn June 6, 2008 (6:30 am)

Climate change sounds like just an excuse by the Parks Department. BURNING WOOD IS CARBON NEUTRAL! If they want to help with climate change they should stop the cars cruising at Alki. Better yet, require everyone to walk, bike, or take public transportation to get there.

Bob Loblaw June 6, 2008 (6:42 am)

what type of “oral requests” are they hoping for? is that what it’s going to take to stop them from implementing this ban?

karen June 6, 2008 (7:07 am)

Arrgh!! I am SO sick of this! take plastic bags and water bottles illegal, ban beach fires, that’ll take care of global warming.
Mass transit? No, we can’t afford that. Street cars, better buses, monorails, no, too hard, too much money.

Jack Flanders June 6, 2008 (7:11 am)

Please, lets respect the environment, but not turn it into a silly comedy sketch. These beach fire areas are used a few times a year. Compared cars, factories and forest fires, it’s truly statistically insignificant. Fine, a city wide ban on yard fires so we don’t have 200,000 files going around the metro area…but this is 5 special purpose areas used occasionally. Let it go. There’s much bigger and more important things to tackle with our time than this.

shihtzu June 6, 2008 (7:12 am)

Ridiculous. It almost sounds like a “The Onion” joke.

KR June 6, 2008 (7:17 am)

I agree what other folks are saying, but at the same time realize that to combat the global warming crisis small and consistent changes need to occur. And it will mean giving up luxuries, conveniences, and some things we enjoy. I will be curious to see that the city decides.

Wes June 6, 2008 (7:27 am)

This story got added to the Drudge Report. Pretty cool! Though this does suck!

karen June 6, 2008 (7:30 am)

I’m all for saving the environment, and I know that means changes. However, telling me a I can’t use a one serving water bottle while allowing a corporation like LaFarge to continue to emit NOX into the air really bugs me.

You know that smell we get around here sometimes, kind of smells like an indoor pool, really strong chemical almost bleach-like odor? That’s from the LaFarge cement plant. Where they are allowed to spew NO2 into the air and when they release too much they get a warning. The plan? Well let’s give them a permit to burn tires, and possibly medical waste then the smell will go away. NOT the sulfer dioxide that will be emitted or the zillion other things that are bad for the environment, it just won’t stink and people won’t complain.

I suspect that my water bottle or beach fire would not make the kind of difference that requiring companies to reduce or clean all of their emissions would.

nunya June 6, 2008 (7:32 am)

It makes more sense than getting taxed for a grocery bag, I am sure if they could just charge a permit for a fire they will be okay. What do you expect from this city, at least they are consistent.

Rick June 6, 2008 (7:42 am)

If the beloved beach fires are banned let’s all light a candle in rememberance. Oh,wait. Maybe that should be banned too.

JenV June 6, 2008 (7:50 am)

so ridiculous, it make Fark.com. way to go, Seattle.

Stan June 6, 2008 (8:55 am)

This is sheer lunacy. Whoever proposed this should be set adrift. The amount of pollution the Parks Department created to make this announcement (energy & time wasted, paper used, etc) is no doubt far more than the pollution caused by a half dozen beach firepits.

I hope the Parks Dept and the brainless drone that proposed this idea realized how much the rest of the world is laughing at those idiots in Seattle right now.

cami June 6, 2008 (12:09 pm)

I just sat down for lunch and made my cruise through the cable news channels. FOXNEWS was discussing the topic “Seattle to ban bonfires to curb global warming”…inspired by Drudge I’m sure. I’m not sure if this works for us (those that want to save the beachfires) or against us!

Beau Robinson June 6, 2008 (12:58 pm)

The environmentalist idiots are again just moving along with their agenda without being questioned on it, when does this insanioty end?
Co2 is one of the elements on the periodic table, you can’t ban it. Global warming is a myth, temperatures are not driven by co2, it is the other way around. Get the facts straight and get the hell out of our personal lives and business.
Truth is, the groupd doing this are just a reflection of the public as a whole who votes them in or allows them to continue. The only thing that changes a freight train agenda like this is for enough of you to speak out and demand they stop this stupid lunacy.

JohnR June 6, 2008 (2:13 pm)

Environmentalists trivialize their issue when they try to tie everything to global warming. At most they should ban the burning fossil fuels on the beach. No coal or oil fires allowed. That’s okay with me. I’ve never seen a coal fire on the beach anyway.

Jake June 6, 2008 (3:53 pm)

This whole climate change/global warming claim by our governments goes against the prevailing scientific evidence. It’s a big waste of time & money as evidenced by the $45 TRILLION dollar price tag to enforce “climate change”. It’s all really about boredom ~ since the Cold War ended the politcos have had nothing to focus their liberal & neoreuplican politics on to maintain the fear in the world.

Next thing they’ll want to do is use nukes to block out the suns rays because they are warming the planet! Sheesh.

alki rez June 6, 2008 (4:59 pm)

Whoa, this comment trail is taking an interesting turn…

While I think the ban on beach fires to cut down on global warming is completely absurd, I am in favor of banning them because they make the beach so dirty.

You walk barefoot on the beach and your feet end up covered in gray soot. I realize some like the bonfires, but for every one person that is enjoying a nice fire, there are a hundred that have to deal with the soot it leaves on the beach.

There’s a reason why the nice beaches in southern california and hawaii don’t allow beach fires.

just my $.02

Eric B June 6, 2008 (9:09 pm)

Beau –

What periodic table of the elements are you using? Any periodic table with CO2 on it is bogus because CO2 is a molecule made up of 2 elements (carbon and oxygen). Maybe that same amount of knowledge went into your conclusion that environmentalists are idiots and global warming is a myth?

Eric B June 6, 2008 (9:39 pm)

To clear some things up, (perhaps) burning a pound of wood produces around 1.7 pounds of carbon dioxide. Figuring that a bonfire might burn 50 pounds of wood, that would be about 85 pounds of CO2. To put that into perspective, that is about the same amount of CO2 as burning a bit over 4 gallons of gasoline. So if we stop 5 fires a day for 3 months, we’ll stop about about 38,000 pounds of CO2 going into the atmosphere ~ about the same as burning 2000 gallons of gasoline. That is a bit more than the “guys exhaling” but not a big source for the City. Now YOU can decide if it is enough to warrant a ban.

Nina T June 9, 2008 (10:00 am)

Here is the info from the Parks Department website. Give Sandy Brooks LOTS of things to read! Pile her desk high with mail, faxes, and e-mail and let the silly park board know what you think. This is a truly stupid and uninformed idea. – Nina

How to submit comments to the Board of Park Commissioners on non-public hearing issues

If an issue has been requested for public hearing and you want to give verbal testimony, the Board asks that you testify on the night of the public hearing.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE BEACH FIRES HAVE NOT BEEN SCHEDULED FOR A PUBLIC HEARING.

If an issue hasnâ€™t been requested for a public hearing, you may submit comments in the following manner:

Verbal comments on non-public hearing issues may be given to the Board near the beginning of each meeting under â€œOral Requests and Communications from the Audienceâ€. The Board will hear a maximum of 15 minutes of testimony during this segment and then move onto the next item on the agenda. If there is remaining testimony, it will be heard just before â€œNew/Old Business.â€ If you are speaking on a public hearing issue, the Chair will ask you to give your testimony at the public hearing and not during â€œOral Requests and Communications.â€

Written comments may be submitted for the Boardâ€™s consideration via e-mail, fax, U.S. mail, or hand delivery and carry the same weight as verbal comments. All comments should be sent to Sandy Brooks, Park Board Coordinator, and she will forward to the seven Board members as soon as possible.

â€¢ E-mail: send to Sandy Brooks at sandy.brooks@seattle.gov
â€¢ Fax: send â€œAttention: Sandy Brooksâ€ at 206-233-7023
â€¢ U.S. mail: send to Sandy Brooks, Board of Park Commissioners, 100 Dexter Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109-5199
â€¢ Hand delivered: comments can be dropped off at Seattle Parks Headquarters, 100 Dexter Ave N, at the front desk. Please write on the envelope â€œAttention: Sandy Brooksâ€

If you have any questions, please contact Sandy at 206-684-5066 or via e-mail.

mbabbitt June 10, 2008 (9:14 am)

Human cause global warming is bad science: climate models supporting other climate models — even when the data runs contrary — or especially when the data runs contrary to the facts on the ground, in the water, and in the air. Banning fires in parks is bad government. Creeping socialism by environmental fanatics.

BB June 11, 2008 (12:12 am)

EARTH TO COOKS! EARTH TO COOKS!…THIS JUST IN….MAN MADE GLOBAL WARMING IS A MYTH CREATED BY THE LEFT TO UNDERMINE THE UNITED STATES. IT MAKES THE LEFTY’S FEEL GOOD BECAUSE THEY CARE.
WE ARE ALL FOR PICKING UP OUR TRASH, BUT DAMN THOSE FRIGGIN CAVEMEN FOR CREATING FIRE! HOPEFULLY, THE LITTLE GREEN MEN IN NEW MEXICO COME OUT OF THERE HIBERNATION IN TIME TO HELP US.

TRY THIS! BURN YOUR WOOD AND THEN GET UP AND GO TO WORK ON MONDAY SO YOU CAN PAY THE TAXES ALL THIS CRAP COST THE USA. MY GUESS IS A COOLER SUMMER ANYWAY!